Sunday, April 02, 2017

The Washington Capitals and Columbus Blue Jackets brought
the playoff intensity on Sunday night in Columbus with the top spot in the Metropolitan
Division, if not the entire league, on the line.The Caps raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first
30 minutes, then held on for a 3-2 win to push the Blue Jackets into third
place in the Division, six points behind the Caps and one point behind the
Pittsburgh Penguins, who defeated the Carolina Hurricanes earlier in the day.

After a scoreless first period, T.J. Oshie got the Caps on the
board in the second minute of the second period.Oshie ran down a long cross-ice pass from
Nicklas Backstrom, took the puck off the right wing wall, cut against the grain
behind two Columbus defenders, and snapped a backhand past goalie Sergei
Bobrovsky just 72 seconds into the period to make it 1-0.

Less than two minutes later, the Caps doubled their
lead.Kevin Shattenkirk go the play
started by feeding Lars Eller in the neutral zone.Eller circled to his right to gain the
offensive zone, then carried the puck around the back of the net.From there, Eller spun and found Andre
Burakovsky filling in behind him.Burakovsky sniped a shot over Bobrovsky’s left shoulder, just inside the
post and under the crossbar to make it 2-0, 2:56 into the period.

Washington made it 3-0 mid-way through the period when
Burakovsky intercepted a Jack John son pass just inside the Caps’ blue line,
then took off in the other direction with Matt Niskanen on his left.After crossing the Columbus blue line, he
eased off, then floated a pass between Johnson and Sam Gagner to Niskanen
cutting to the net.Niskanen snapped a
shot that beat Bobrovsky on the glove side, and it was 3-0 Caps at the 10:05
mark.

The Caps took that 3-0 lead into the third period and almost
gave it all away.Columbus got one back
in the tenth minute of the period when Johnson took a pass from Alexander
Wennberg as he was exiting the defensive zone, skated around John Carlson at
the Caps’ blue line, did the same to Tom Wilson in deep, and beat goalie Braden
Holtby at the 9:22 mark to make it a 3-1 game.

Kyle Quincey got Columbus within a goal six minutes later,
capitalizing on heavy pressure in the Caps’ end.Keeping the Caps pinned in, Brandon Saad
circled out through the left wing circle and fed Quincey at the left
point.Quincey’s floater through a maze
of players hit nothing until it found the back of the net at 15:33 of the
period to make it 3-2.

Braden Holtby stood tall in net after that, staving off a
late Columbus flurry in front of his net to secure the 3-2 win and strengthen
the grip the Caps have on the top spot in the division and league standings.

Other stuff…

-- At one point, when the Caps had a 3-0 lead, 15 different
Columbus skaters were minus-1.Only
Brandon Saad (who finished plus-2), Josh Anderson, and Boone Jenner missed out
on that fun among the 18 skaters.

-- Beating trends… Columbus came into the game with a 30-6-2
record this season when Alexander Wennberg had a point and had not lost a game
in regulation when Jack Johnson scored a goal (3-0-1).Well, that’s now 30-7-2, and 3-1-1.

-- Andre Burakovsky had a goal and an assist, his first
multi-point game he had a goal and an assist in a 5-2 win over the New Jersey
Devils on January 26th.He
went 13 games and a hand injury without one.

-- It was quite a jump start for Burakovsky, who skated just
four shifts and 3:02 in the first period without a single mark in any category on
his line of the score sheet.

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov had perhaps his most out-of-character
game of the season.He had one shot on
goal (his only shot attempt) and no points.But he did have five credited hits to lead the team and won nine of 12
faceoffs (he came into the game winning 43.4 percent of his draws).

-- As a group, the Caps won 34 of 54 faceoffs (63.0
percent).No Caps taking more than one
faceoff was under 50 percent.Losing
three of the last four draws they took in the last 1:01 made things a bit more
interesting than they had to be.

-- Alex Ovechkin skated just 15:27, his lowest amount of ice
time since he skated 14:54 in a 6-4 win over the Anaheim Ducks on February 11th.

-- Nicklas Backstrom had an assist.That makes helpers in seven of his last 11
games, over which he is 2-15-17, plus-2.

-- Braden Holtby held the Blue Jackets to two goals on 37
shots faced.It was the first time in
six road games that he allowed fewer than three goals and his heaviest shot
volume on the road this season since he faced 45 shots in Winnipeg in a 3-2 win
last November 1st.

-- Columbus won the possession battle, out-attempting the
Caps, 57-41 at 5-on-5 (58.16 percent Corsi-for), and outshooting the Caps, 30-26
at fives (numbers from Corsica.hockey).

In the end…

Imagine seven games in a playoff series like this.It would be grueling for the players, no
doubt, but thrilling for fans of both teams (although we’d prefer to see a four
sleeper game series in which the Caps stomp the Blue Jackets).This might be thought of as “Game 0” of that
potential playoff matchup. It had that kind of close-quarter, nasty edge feel
to it.That the Caps could go into
Columbus and take the crowd out of the game for 40 minutes and take advantage
of opportunities, then grind out a win against a hard-charging team late speaks
well for their readiness for that environment.

Week 25 for the Washington Capitals was one that might be
described as a three course meal.They
had a tasty appetizer, followed by a satisfying entrée, and ended it with deflated souffle.It might be the stale cake that
fans remember most, but let’s not complain about the entire meal.

Record: 2-1-0

The schedule for Week 25 called for three games to open a
season-long five game road trip. It is a trip that will take the Caps through
five cities, four states, one Canadian province, and three time zones.The leading leg of it took the Caps on a
roundabout route from Minnesota to Colorado to Arizona against three teams in
various states of distress.The Caps faced
a Minnesota Wild team that was 2-9-1 in their previous 11 games before facing
the Caps.Washington took a two-goal
lead into the last five minutes of the game, but needed overtime to subdue the
Wild after losing that two goal lead in the last five minutes.In Colorado they faced an Avalanche team with
the worst record in the league, by far, and with a 3-12-0 record in their
previous 15 games before facing the Caps.The Caps had a three-goal lead late in the second period and almost gave
it all back before scoring an empty net goal in the last two minutes of a 5-3
win.

They never got the chance to hold a lead against the Arizona
Coyotes, the team with the second-worst record in the league, in the last game
of the week.The Coyotes scored three
goals in the first 14 minutes of the contest, held off a challenge by the Caps
mid-way through the game, and then dispatched the Caps in a 6-3 decision.

Offense: 4.33/game (season: 3.23 /game; rank: 2nd)

Washington had no problems scoring goals in Week 25.They did it against struggling teams, but
they did do it.The Wild had allowed 39
goals over their previous 11 games before facing the Caps, and the Avalanche
and Coyotes had the two worst scoring defenses in the league.It was not surprising that an offense as deep
and skilled as the Caps averaged more than four goals for the week.The two games in which the Caps scored five
goals to open the week were the first instances of consecutive games with five
or more goals since the put together a four-game streak of such games in Games
53-56 in early February.It was the
first time they recorded five or more goals in consecutive games on the road
since they scored seven goals in each of Games 44 and 45 against Pittsburgh and
St. Louis in mid-January last season.

On an individual level, Alex Ovechkin led the Caps in goal
scoring for the week with three, all of them coming in the 5-4 overtime win
over Minnesota in the first game of the week.It was his 17th career hat trick, the most in the NHL since he came into
the league in 2005-2006 (Eric Staal has 13).In your odd Ovechkin fact of the day, those 17 career hat tricks are as
many as any NHL player has accumulated since the 1994-1995 season.Former Cap Peter Bondra had 17 hat tricks
from 1994 to 2004.

T.J. Oshie was the other Capital with a multiple goal week
(two), and he had both of his goals in that same game against the Wild.It was Oshie’s sixth multi-goal game of the
season for the Caps and second in five games, since recording his only hat
trick of the season in a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 18th.

Marcus Johansson had himself a whale of a week.With a goal and seven assists, his eight
points led the Caps in scoring, twice as many points as any other player.The eight points made him a 50-point player
for the first time in his seven-year career (23-33-56), and he finished the
week on a five-game points streak (1-10-11). He is the 15th player
and the seventh on the current Caps team to have recorded at least one 50-point
season since the 2004-2005 lockout.

Defense: 4.33/game (season: 2.22 /game; rank: 1st)

It was an odd week for the Caps on defense, and not in a
good way.There was the 13 goals in
three games, which was bad enough.But
there was the odd result for the week of what happened in terms of shots
attempts allowed.The Caps had a very
nice week overall with a 53.65 percent Corsi-for at 5-on-5, fueled by holding
opponents to a combined 51.23 shots per 60 5-on-5 minutes.But how they got there was bizarre.The Caps were underwater in both of their
wins in Week 25 – 36.67 percent against Minnesota and 49.49 percent against
Colorado – both of them wins.They
dominated Arizona at fives in the last game of the week with a 66.09 percent
Corsi-for and holding the Coyotes to 41.32 shots per 60 5-on-5 minutes (numbers
from Corsica.hockey).In all three
games, the Caps lost the goals for and against at fives, 3-1 to Minnesota, 3-2
to Colorado, and 4-2 to Arizona.

What seems a bit more revealing is the overall shot attempts
in close situations.The Caps were under
50 percent for the week in their win at Minnesota (38.24 percent) and in the
loss to Arizona (46.15 percent).They
did manage to get above 50 percent in their win over Colorado (55.0 percent),
but it was not enough to save the week (47.00 percent over the three games; numbers from NHL.com).

Goaltending: 4.29 / .862 (season:2.12 / .923 / 11 shutouts)

It was not a good week between the pipes, especially for
Braden Holtby.He got most of two game’
worth of work and struggled with it, going 1-1-0, 5.22, .818 in 115 minutes of
work, getting pulled from and then sent back into the nets against Arizona to
close the week.He ended the week with
an unenviable recent road record, going 2-3-0, 4.50, .843 in his last five
games on the road.It was a case of
having poor first periods and going downhill from there.His .857 first period save percentage was the
only period above .800 for the week, going .789 in the second periods and .786
in the third periods of the two games he played.He did stop the only shot he faced in the
overtime win over Minnesota to open the week.

Philipp Grubauer got the middle game of the week and the
last 6:48 of the second period against Arizona in relief of Holtby.His performance was uneven, but certainly
more solid than Holtby’s.He had healthy
save percentages in the first (.929) and third periods (.933) against Colorado,
but his second period performance (.833) was off, and he had the odd experience
of not having to face a shot on goal in that 6:48 he played against Arizona.

Power Play: 6-for-8 / 75.5 percent (season: 23.6 percent; rank: 3rd)

If there is one thing truly clicking for the Caps these
days, it is the power play.Washington
had its best week of the season in goals scored (six) and efficiency (75.0
percent) of any week this season.Half
of those six goals came from Alex Ovechkin in recording his hat trick against
Minnesota in the first game of the week.He managed that feat on the only three power play shots he took in that
game.John Carlson, Marcus Johansson,
and Nicklas Backstrom had the other three power play goals for the week.Eight different players had power play
points, Johansson leading that group with five points on the man
advantage.

It was an especially efficient week for the Caps on the
power play.They scored on half of their
shots (6-for-12) and recorded 12 shots in just 8:08 of total power play
time.The Caps were successful in both
of their power play opportunities this season, the first time they scored two
power play goals in any of the 21 instances in which they had two power play
opportunities.

It was a fair week on the penalty kill that might have ended
superbly, but for an iffy effort against Arizona in the last game of the
week.Washington killed off all five
shorthanded situations they faced against Minnesota, then skated off another
three against Colorado.With the chance
for a perfect week, the Caps ended up allowing power play goals on both Coyote
power plays to end the week, a disappointing outcome against a team that
finished the week 26 in the league in power play efficiency overall and 23rd
at home.

Those first two games were almost a clinic in penalty
killing, holding the Wild to just four unsuccessful shots on goal in 9:53 of
power play time, then holding the Avalanche to just three shots in six minutes
of power play time.Sure, the Avs had
the worst home power play in the league to end the week, but the Wild finished
the week as the second best home power play in the NHL.It made it that much more disappointing to
allow the Coyotes two goals on two shots in 2:41 with Arizona possessing the
league’s eighth-worst home power play.

Overall, the Caps had a difficult week in the circle,
although they did improve as the week wore on, finishing with a 35.3 percent
winning percentage in the first game of the week against Minnesota, then
following it up with a 50.0 percent effort against Colorado, and then winning
57.1 percent of their draws against Arizona.It was a different story by zone.The Caps won 53.2 percent of their neutral zone draws for the week, but
lost at both ends of the ice – 40.8 percent in the offensive zone and 49.2
percent in the defensive zone.

Three of the big four (ten or more faceoffs for the week)
were at 50 percent or better for the week – Evgeny Kuznetsov (50.0), Jay Beagle
(52.2) and Nicklas Backstrom (54.8).Only Lars Eller among that group was under 50 percent for the week (43.8
percent).

Goals by Period:

It was tight for the Caps in Week 25 in terms of goals by
period, finishing the week with a minus-1 goal differential in the first and
third periods, while finishing with a plus-1 differential in the second period
and overtime.That first period differential
was positive until allowing three goals to Arizona to put themselves in a deep
hole out of which they could not climb in the last game of the week.And it was the minus-1 that the Caps had
against Minnesota in the third period of their game that sent the context to
overtime before the Caps won.

Still, the Caps did maintain their positive goal
differential in all three periods for the season, and overtime, and they even
improved a bit on their comparatively weak second period (plus-2 for the season).

In the end…

Week 25 was the 17th winning week for the Caps
this season and their third in a row, over which they are 7-2-1.Still, that Arizona game sticks out, for
falling behind so deeply and so quickly to start the game, for allowing six
goals to a team that had trouble scoring against air in March, and for leaving
two points on the table that could have given them a stranglehold on the top
spot in the league standings.It makes
for a bit more urgency in the Caps’ Sunday evening contest in Columbus against
the Blue Jackets.That made Week 25 a
week that was good, but one that could have been so much better.Certainly better than the deflated souffle the Caps
were left with to finish it.

Three Stars of the Week:

First Star: Marcus Johansson (1-7-8, even, 1-4-5 on the
power play, five-game points streak to end the week)

Second Star: Alex Ovechkin (3-1-4, minus-1, hat trick, three
power play goals on three power play shots, ten shots on goal 16 shot attempts,
five hits)

The Washington Capitals enter the home stretch of their
season-long five-game road trip on Sunday with a visit to Nationwide Arena in
Columbus, Ohio, to face the Blue Jackets.This last of five regular season meetings between the Caps and Columbus
will decide the season series between the clubs, each team having won a game in
regulation and a game in extra time this season.It will be the Caps’ second visit to Ohio
this season, their last visit ending in an unpleasant 2-1 overtime loss to the
Blue Jackets.

The teams met less than two weeks ago, the Caps dealing
Columbus a 2-1 Gimmick loss at Verizon Center on March 23rd.Since then, the Blue Jackets are 2-1-1, losing
their last two contests and dropping a point to the Caps in the standings.Four points behind the Caps with five games
to play, this might be considered a must-win for Columbus if they are to
maintain any hope of catching Washington in the race for the top spot in the
Eastern Conference and perhaps the Presidents Trophy with the league’s top
record.

The Blue Jackets have struggled to score in their four games
since facing the Caps, getting a total of six goals in those four games and
being held to a single goal in three of those contests.Six different Blue Jackets have one goal
apiece in that stretch, while four have two points apiece.One of those players is Kyle Quincey (1-1-2),
who joined Columbus at the trading deadline in February, sent to the Blue
Jackets by the New Jersey Devils for defenseman Dalton Prout. Columbus is
Quincey’s fifth NHL team, having also skated for the Detroit Red Wings,
Colorado Avalanche, and Los Angeles Kings in his other stops.I took Quincey quite a while to get a crooked
number on his scoring line for Columbus, going his first 11 games with the Blue
Jackets without a point, extending what would be a 17-game streak without a
point that ended when he recorded an assist against the Philadelphia Flyers in
a 1-0 win on March 25th.Quincey
is 1-4-5, minus-5, in 15 career games against the Caps.

Alexander Wennberg is another of those four players with two
points in their last four games for the Blue Jackets (1-1-2).It is part of a career year for Wennberg in
games played (76), goals (13), assists (43), points (56), plus-minus (plus-9),
and shooting percentage (12.6).He also
has career highs in power play goals (2) and power play assists (20), as well
as total shots on goal (103).He has
been in something of a slump recently, though.He is just 1-3-4, minus-1, in his last 16 games, and when he recorded a
point in games last week over Philadelphia and the Buffalo Sabres, it was the
first and only time in those 16 games he had points in consecutive games.Both of those games in which Wennberg
recorded points last week were wins, which is not unusual.Columbus is 30-6-2 in games in which Wennberg
has a point this season.He is 1-4-5,
minus-7, in 11 career games against Washington.

Defenseman Jack Johnson is also 1-1-2 in his last four
games.Until Quincey joined the Blue
Jackets in March, Johnson was the oldest member of the Columbus blue line (he
turned 30 in January). Now in his 11th
season and sixth with the Blue Jackets, Johnson is third on the franchise’s
all-time list in games played by a defenseman (363).He is also third among the franchise’s
defensemen in goals (32), second in assists (110), and second in points
(142).No defenseman in Blue Jacket
history has more game-winning goals than Johnson (six).Despite his all-time high ranking among
Columbus in a variety of categories, he is not a particularly prolific scorer
from the blue line.It means that when he
does score, it has its benefits.Columbus is 15-3-2 in the 20 games in which he registered a point this
season. Johnson is 4-8-12, minus-4, in 19 career games against the Capitals.

1.Columbus had a
fine start to March, going 8-2-0 to begin the month.They ended it with a thud, going 2-2-2 in
their last six games of the month.They
scored just nine goals in those six games while allowing 12 (not including the
Gimmick goal in the loss to the Caps).

2. Part of the Blue
Jackets’ charm this season has been winning one-goal games.They are third in the league in winning
percentage in one-goal games (.595/22-7-8), and in their six-game slide they
are still 1-0-2 in one-goal decisions.

3.Columbus is also
one of two teams this season with a .500 or better winning percentage when
allowing the game’s first goal (.500/14-11-3; Pittsburgh is .559/19-11-4).In their 2-2-2 slide, though, they lost both
games in which they allowed the first goal, a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple
Leafs and a 3-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.

4.The Blue Jackets
are struggling mightily on the power play.They are without a power play goal in their last nine games, going
0-for-17.Four times in those nine games
they enjoyed only one or had no power play opportunities.

5.The Blue Jackets
are not an especially effective possession team.Overall this season, they rank 18th
in the league in total shot attempt percentage-for (49.92 percent; numbers from
NHL.com).However, in their last six
games, they rank 27th (46.07 percent).

1.Washington has not
stayed within the lines this season in terms of the rule book boundaries,
ranking fourth overall in minor penalties taken (294).They have been a lot better about it
recently, though.In their last seven
games, over which they are 6-1-0, the Caps are tied for 22nd in total
minor penalties taken (22), and they rank 24th in total penalty
minutes recorded (51).

2.The Caps can beat
you close, and they can beat you up.They are the only team in the league with a top-five winning percentage
in one-goal games (.594/4th), two-goal games (.688/5th),
and games decided by three or more goals (.724/3rd).

3.Washington is very
adept at putting teams behind the eight-ball.They have scored the game’s first goal 54 times in 77 games this season,
most in the league, and they are successful when they do.Their record of 42-7-5 when scoring first is
most in wins and best in winning percentage (.778).

4.Here we are, 77
games into the season, and the Caps are still just one of two teams in the
league without a goal scored at 4-on-4 (Carolina is the other).What makes this fact a bit bizarre is that the
Caps are ranked ninth in 4-on-4 ice time this season (83.86 minutes; numbers
from Corsica.hockey).

5.The Caps have
ramped up their possession numbers recently.They rank fourth overall in total shot attempt percentage-for (51.82;
numbers from NHL.com), but rank second in their 6-1-0 run of late (56.20,
behind Minnesota at 56.60).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Columbus: Scott Hartnell

In the history of the NHL, 20 players have appeared in at
least 1,000 games, recorded at least 1,500 minutes in penalties, and scored 300
or more goals.Scott Hartnell became the
20th member of that club late last season, and he is only active
member of that group.This season, he
skates as the oldest player on the Columbus Blue Jackets roster (he will be 35
years old on April 18th).The
nine-time 20-goal scorer has slipped a bit in his goal scoring this season,
currently sitting at 13 goals, his lowest total for a full season since he had
12 for the Nashville Predators back in 2002-2003, his third season in the
league.He has had an excruciating time
of it lately in terms of goal-scoring.He has not recorded a goal since he had a pair against the Carolina
Hurricanes, including the game-winner, in a 3-2 win on January 21st.That makes 29 games and counting since his
last goal.All he has on his score sheet
is seven assists.Perhaps a combination
of his age, production, and the improvement in skill around him, Hartnell has
recorded 15 or more minutes of ice time just five times in 74 games this
season, none since November 29th.He is averaging just 11:34 over that 29-game streak without a goal and had fewer than ten minutes in three of his last ten games.Hartnell is 13-13-26, plus-5, in 44 career
games against the Caps.

Washington:Braden
Holtby

When Braden Holtby allowed six goals on 25 shots on Friday
in a 6-3 loss to the Arizona Coyotes, it was the third time in his career that he
allowed six goals in a game, the first time it happened to him since he allowed
that many twice in the 2012-2013 season.It has been a rare occurrence for Holtby, but not as rare as you would
think in the NHL.Goalies have allowed
six or more goals 53 times this season (through Friday’s games).What is of more concern is his recent road
record.In his last five road games,
Holtby is 2-3-0, 4.50, .843.Holtby has
been a good, if not great goalie on the road over his last three seasons (11th
in goals against average at 2.39; 15th in save percentage at .915
among 67 goalies with at least 1,000 minutes), but this latest stretch might be
cause for some concern.In 16 career
appearances against Columbus, Holtby is 10-3-2 (one no-decision), 2.52, .911, with
one shutout.

In the end…

Columbus must win this game.Lose, and the chances of overtaking the Caps in the standings evaporate
to almost zero (with a regulation win, the Caps would have a six-point lead with four games to play for each team). The Caps want to make a statement.Win in regulation, or perhaps in extra time
for that matter, and they can start making space in the team’s offices for that
Presidents Trophy.It would send a
message to an opponent who they could face in the second round of the
postseason that the Caps are at or near the top of their game.Columbus comes into this game staggering a
bit.The Caps come into it off one of
their worst performances of the season.These teams will not be in a good mood on Sunday.This is as much a “playoff” game as one is
likely to see in the regular season.Caps fans will get a glimpse of just how ready the team is to work in
that crucible.

WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

The Washington Capitals ended the 2016-2017 as one of 12 franchises in the NHL never to win a Stanley Cup. Of that group, only the St. Louis Blues (48 seasons), Buffalo Sabres (45 seasons), and Vancouver Canucks (45 seasons) have gone longer never having won a Cup than the Capitals (41 seasons). Six teams came into the league after the Capitals entered the league in 1974-1975 and have won Stanley Cups: Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils (1976-1977), Edmonton Oilers (1979-1980), Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche (1979-1980), Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes (1979-1980), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-1993), and the Anaheim Ducks (1993-1994).